Whelp's Cries
by Phanax Leminer
Summary: The dreams are never real, but when they are... nightmares are what we can only see.


**Chapter 1: Dream from There**

_The first thing he knew was how hot his body was. His blurred vision could only see red and orange colors flying and intertwined between each others. A brown object fell near him, but he couldn't feel fear from the danger around him._

_Somehow, he got up. He was suffering of vertigo; the whole space around him was madly spinning . He took a few steps in front of him and he felt his feet burning on the heating floor. His conscious mind couldn't figure out what was happening to him._

_Despise the fiery pain in his legs, he saw people running out from doors and went through another door. He didn't know if they were allies or enemies, but their movements seemed strange. Their backs were hunched in front like animals._

_He took a few more steps. As he did, his chest hurt, and he began to cough out a thick air out of his mouth. He knew something was wrong, but he simply ignored it._

_He kept walking through the straight line of red and orange. No questions or words came to his mind._

_His eyes barely saw the white door in front of him. He grabbed the handle and slid it. The touch was hot and terrible, but he again ignored it. He entered the room._

_His eyes finally saw through the fatigue, and he could see the whole room in ravaging fire. Before he could turn away and run, he saw this rusted armor. It was the color of a disgusting orange and gray, so much that looking at it was hurtful. The armor didn't move. It simply stared at him._

_He was about to speak, but a loud crack stopped his tongue. He looked up and saw the ceiling collapsing on him. He only had time to look back at the armor. The armor was gone, it was replaced by a corpse on the ground. He didn't know who he was. The ceiling fell on both when he was about to realize who he was._

* * *

It was a sharp bird's chirp who knocked the young warlord out of the dreamworld. He remained unmoved by the shock of his awakening. The sunlight was directly on his bed, but shined only from his chest to his legs.

The bird kept chirping at the clan leader as if it tried to talk to him. He finally got up and looked at outside through the free space in his wall with only a light curtain blocking a slime of the sunlight. He only saw the blurred image of a tree and a small, brown shape on what seemed to be a branch. The shape flew away as it gently chirped its little song.

He stared at the window, before he got up and suited himself for a meeting with his right in command; Kojūrō Katakura. In a short lapse of time, he was completely armored up except for his head which still lacked the eye-patch and the moon-crescent helmet, the Date's symbol. His sword belt and his six sheaths were emptied except one for precaution.

He found the eye-patch sitting on a small table and placed it on his missing right eye. He was ready to meet his second in command and maybe a few of his subordinates.

He arrived at the strategy room in less then a minute. As he had thought, a few of his commanders and strategists were gathered around a large table. The wooden table had a map and wooden peons of different colors to show the disposition of his troops and enemy troops.

''Good morning, Lord Masamune Date!'' The gathered man yelled out when the young leader entered the room. A slightly-older man among them only bowed in respect and silence.

The leader only smiled at the energy of his men and walked toward the man who only bowed at his presence.

''What's the plan Kojūrō?'' Asked the man in blue as he looked at the map with his sole eye.

''My Lord, an encampment of the enemy has been identified by our scouts near the south cliff. Although small, the scouts have suspected them to be spies of the Takeda army.'' explained the main strategist to the young leader.

''Takeda army? It's not their style to leaving a camp uncovered.'' Pointed out the leader even if he only had been lord of the land for a short time.

''It must be a trap sent by Shingen!'' Said out loud one the commanders. ''He's smart like a fox! He could try to deceive us!''

''Lord Masamune, though I respect Lord Shingen for his honor and just in these time of war, it wouldn't be surprising if he could do such trickery. A direct approach is necessary if we don't want them to go away with sensitive information.''

''Then we move! We can't wait for a single more...''

''HOLD IT!''

All the men in the room stopped in their hurry to leave. The second in command only gave a quick glance at the young leader. His age couldn't compare to his maturity. He never acted like a child except on the battlefield where he finds his amusement in fighting strong opponents.

''If you guys all go in, they will invade the land.'' He said as he pointed the numerous enemy troops around their homeland. ''Shingen and Kenshin troops are only waiting for us to make one mistake. We need a small troop to take care of those dudes.''

There was a moment of silence among the men, but none said anything.

''Very well, my Lord.'' Kojūrō took the reins of the decision. ''One of you will go with a small number of soldiers and kill the camp of spies. Finish the job quickly and give these soldiers a quick death. Also, catch one commander or a elite soldier in the camp. Now who...''

''Don't sweat it!''

Everyone in the room had a stun looked on their face, they all rotated their heads toward the smiling clan leader. The general only snarked and began to walk away from the meeting room. The other men looked at each other, confused by the sudden reaction of their leader. Kojūrō excused himself and quickly said that he will be back with answers.

The second in command managed to catch his lord in the backyard. The backyard was the quickest way to get to the stables. To make matters worst, his lord was armed.

''Lord Masamune, tell me, what do you intend to do?'' he asked to the young man, halted in his way.

''Hunh?'' the lord asked with a mocking smile on his face, ''Kojūrō, you know what I'm gonna do, right?''

''Lord Masamune, with all the respect due to you, I can't allow you to go in battle.'' he sincerely told the brown coated man, ''We have lost too many good men in the last days. The Date Clan cannot go without its leader.''

''Oh?'' questioned the young man, ''And if I persist to go?''

Kojūrō raised his head with a uncertain look on his face. He wasn't sure what to say. As he kept his silence, neither saw a small bird landed on a nearby branch under the spring weather.

''Exactly.'' The smile on Masamune's lips faded away and only glared at his loyal bodyguard. ''You can't do anything. I'm not a kid anymore, Kojūrō. I have to do the best thing for this country and my guys. Besides, they will never expect their big target to attack at their flank if they decide to go all in.''

''And if both the Takeda and Uesugi decide to form a temporary an alliance to attack us?''

Masamune stood blamed at a moment, but quickly began to weakly laugh.

''Wait, you are saying the God of War and the Tiger of Kei joining together? Get real Kojūrō. This is why I'm going alone in this.''

''Unacceptable!'' The bodyguard cut short his lord. ''As your Right Eye, I'm not tolerated to leave your sight my lord! I have made a vow to both you and Lord Date Terumune to protect you, my lord! And I, Katakura Kojūrō, will never lead your side, lord Date Masamune!''

The whole garden was silent. The wind stopped to blow and the little brown bird only twitched its small head through the speech. Masamune kept quiet too. Finally, he sighed out of relief and confidence.

''Alright.'' He gave up. ''Prepare a few guys and go back to those guys to assign one of them to keep the place safe. Oh, and one who we both know who isn't going to take my place while we are off. You see?''

Kojūrō nodded and made his way back to meet the other strategists and commander. When the bodyguard was gone, he let go of his smile and had a blank stare in his eye. Reality shocked him once more as if he finally thought he was just dreaming. He was the clan leader of the Date, the ruler of Oda. He hadn't even hit twenty years of life and already, he was governing a entire territory.

He knew what he was doing wasn't one of the best of the ideas he had, but he had to come out of the mansion. He has been in there for a week or even more, he had to do something, to think of something else then what he already on his mind.

Lost in his thoughts, he awoke by the little bird on the tree's branch who sang a short song and flew away. Masamune grunted at his weak resolve and kept walking to the stables.


End file.
